North American exchanges step up co-location race
Canadian exchange group TMX plans to open phase four of its co-location facility in Q2 2012, providing clients with improved low-latency access to the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, the Montreal Exchange and TMX Select trading engines and data feeds.
As part of the upgrade, TMX is also updating its electrical systems, extending its access hours and streamlining its operational procedures.
“Phase four of TMX co-location is a seamless expansion of our phase three facility and allows more clients to join, contribute to, and benefit from the growing community there,” said Brenda Hoffman, senior vice president and group head of information technology, TMX Group.
South of the 49th parallel, Nasdaq OMX Group has introduced two new access services, Super Cab and 40G Client Connectivity, which are designed to provide customers of the New Jersey-based Nasdaq OMX data centre with the fastest access and highest bandwidth available for co-location. Super Cab is now available and 40G Client Connectivity is subject to regulatory approval.
Super Cab provides customers with up to 17 kilowatts of power, introducing efficiencies in co-location infrastructure by reducing cabinet-to-cabinet connectivity latency. 40G Client Connectivity provides customers with the ability to access all the exchange group’s US markets through a single ultra-low latency connection.
With 40G connectivity, network latency is expected to be reduced by an average of seven microseconds, compared to the current 10G connectivity option available to co-location clients. Customers can use 40G connectivity to access all data feeds offered in the Nasdaq OMX data centre.
ITRS poaches non-exec directors from J.P. Morgan
Application performance monitoring specialist firm ITRS Group has appointed two new non-executive directors.
Richard Berliand has agreed to join ITRS from J.P. Morgan, where he has worked for 25 years. Most recently he ran the prime services businesses. He is also a member of the supervisory board of Deutsche Börse.
In addition, Alain Gaudeau has agreed to join ITRS. He has had a 20 year career at J.P. Morgan, where he was most recently the chief technology officer of equity derivatives, equity prop and cross-IB assets.
“These appointments are very exciting for all of us at ITRS, as this allows us to access the huge amount of knowledge and experience of both Richard and Alain,” said Kevin Covington, CEO of ITRS Group. “I am confident that the combination of the two will provide invaluable business and technology skills to ITRS and, ultimately, our customers.”
Connamara reveals FIXpresso latency-busting technology
Trading technology solutions provider Connamara Systems has released FIXpresso, a product it claims can help proprietary trading firms and hedge funds improve latency by more than 98% over the popular QuickFIX/J open source Java FIX library on which it is based.
Developers can create new FIX applications using the patterns from QuickFIX/J by making minimal code changes. While it is not a direct replacement for QuickFIX/J. FIXpresso can be integrated with an existing QuickFIX/J application.
“Trading firms continue to strive for lower round-trip latency,” said Jim Downs, founder and CEO. “The faster they can send, replace and cancel their orders and receive acknowledgement from the trading venue, the more effective their strategies will be. FIXpresso has been optimised to help them achieve this objective.”
Neovest joins IPC global network
Execution management systems provider Neovest has joined the Connexus Financial Extranet service operated by trading communications firm IPC Systems.
Using IPC’s Connexus, Neovest customers can connect to a global network. Connexus is part of the IPC Financial Markets Network service portfolio, which also includes private extranet and DirectConnect data services, as well as trader and voice connectivity services. The network provides access to some 4,000 market participant locations in 700 cities in 60 countries.
“Connexus not only gives us the opportunity to extend our global network reach, but it also provides vital client connectivity, which is the life-blood of our business services,” said Bryce Byers, chief operating officer, Neovest. “Professionally managed connectivity is an essential component of our client’s experience.”
Charles River and SimCorp report client wins, technology expansion
Investment solutions provider Charles River Development has reported that it added 30 clients to its customer base in 2011. The company launched the Charles River Data Service, a managed equity and fixed income data offering which is integrated into the Charles River investment management solution (IMS).
Charles River has opened a hosting centre in the UK, while the new Charles River Data Service aims to provide increased data accuracy and reduced costs for clients in managing their data. The service provides equity and fixed income reference and real-time market data aggregated from multiple data sources, mapped and fed into the Charles River IMS.
Meanwhile, buy-side firm BMO Global Asset Management has chosen SimCorp Dimension, the software solution for investment management provided by specialist investment management company SimCorp.
BMO Global Asset Management is a multi-asset management business. SimCorp Dimension will support the firm's operations in Toronto, Chicago and Milwaukee.
“We are very excited that SimCorp Dimension will help us drive better cost and operational efficiencies,” said Todd Healy, vice president, director of investment operations at BMO Global Asset Management in Milwaukee/Chicago. “With SimCorp Dimension, multiple BMO Global Asset Management entities will be able to share reference data and infrastructure support costs but at the same time segregate client data between the different lines of business.”